FPL sets higher charge for customers refusing smart meters

When utilities began replacing customers' electric meters with a "smart" version, they warned that anybody insisting on keeping an old meter would have to pay a bigger monthly bill.

Florida Power & Light Co. took that heads-up a step closer to reality Tuesday when the state Public Service Commission gave tentative approval to a plan by the state's largest utility to charge meter holdouts a $95 "enrollment fee" and a $13 monthly fee. Those fees would be in addition to standard monthly billing.

Of 4.6 million customers in Florida, FPL has equipped more than 4.5 million with smart meters that use radio transmitters to beam power-usage data to the utility's computers.

FPL and other utilities have encouraged customers to use their smart-meter data as a tool for conserving electricity.

But as with many other utilities in the nation, a small number of customers suspect the meters would invade the privacy of their homes, tracking not just how much power is used but how it's used.

Utilities have responded that such monitoring isn't possible because of the way meters are connected to household wiring. Some customers also fear they could be harmed by a smart meter's radio signal, which utilities say is weaker than that of a cellphone.

FPL expects about 12,000 customers will keep their old meters, according to information filed with the Public Service Commission.

Orlando Utilities Commission also is converting nearly 297,000 power and water meters. About 170 OUC customers are refusing the switch, and the utility is debating whether to charge them more.

Because the transition to smart meters is meant to cut utility costs — for example, by eliminating manual meter reading — the old-style meters will be more costly for FPL.

"It would unfair for the vast majority of our customers to subsidize a small number of customers who want a nonstandard meter," said FPL spokesman Dave McDermitt.

The Public Service Commission denied FPL's original request to charge an enrollment fee of $105 and a monthly fee of $16 but said the lower fees would be acceptable. McDermitt said a revised request would be filed Tuesday.